Pathways to Immortality - Alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG)

This one started as a dietary supplement used by bodibuilders, of course, as they are the ones opening the way to all the needs experimenting, with or without much care about consequences. AKG is a chemical that we already have in our body. In medicine, it was used for kidney patients receiving hemodialysis treatments process protein, for intestinal and stomach disorders, liver problems and even cataracts. A notable use for reccuring yeast infections. The sport suppliers are telling us that taking AKG supplements can bring our body to peak performance, ny using the extra ammonia to reduce the ammonia toxicity, in a similar way with the patients receiving hemodyalisis. Others mention that you can take alpha-ketoglutarate intravenously, as they take sometimes during heart surgery to prevent injuries and muscle breakdown. Heck, it is even used in the pig industry to grow healthier, heavier pigs, especially during early months. And it is not cheap, a 240 capsules box of 500mg Calcium AKG is like $85.

But then, i found a research made by Buck Institute for Research for Aging, and the results are fascinating. They got groups of 16-18 months old mice (55 year old equivalent for humans), and they give them AKG daily. A little side note, AKG is an intermediate in the Krebs cycle, changing dietary glucose into ATP (you know it as adenosine triphosphate, the one compound that gives energy to the cell). And, interesting enough, in a similar way with NAD+ (another heavily marketed longevity supplement), our AKG levels are decreasing as we age, so around age of 50-60 you may have 10 times less AKG then in your youth. Where we go, this is a quest as old as humanity itself. But enough talking, let's see the results. The mice fed with AKG as supplement scored 40%+ on frailty test, and female mice lived up to 20% more than the control mice. But there is more than that. Even if the lifespan increased with up to 13%, the healthspan increased with more than 40%, as it was noticed. This is every researcher nightmare, that you may increase the lifespan, but without counteracting the frailty that comes with age. So, this supplement brings hope, because even the mices that lived a normal life, had less health related problems than the test group. This was a result due to low levels achieved by systemic inflammatory cytokines, better gait and grip strenght was also notices, as they retained the muscle mass better while ageing (I can see why older bodibuilders jumped to their conclusion). Female mice got bigger improvements than male mice.

Another distinct advantage for AKG is that, unlike other proven remedies like metformin and rapamycin (which are known to increase longevity given some specific conditions), this one is naturally made in our body, so it is considered safe by FDA. I have heard even of some ongoing researches trying to test this supplement uses in Alzheimer's disease. AKG is heavily researched in Asia, mostly for agricultural and farming reasons.

Word of advice: Do not go right away to buy it and use it, at least not before asking your doctor. There are still many unknown factors to this equation. They did not study it enough in terms of interactions and side effects. Especially during pregnancy and lactation time. You do not want to repair a hand watch with a hammer, irrelevant of your skill.

Bibliography:

https://www.rxlist.com/alpha-ketoglutarate/supplements.htm

https://www.supplementplace.co.uk/calcium-akg/

https://www.buckinstitute.org/news/a-metabolite-produced-by-the-body-increases-lifespan-and-dramatically-compresses-late-life-morbidity-in-mice/

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2018/3408467/

https://www.oncotarget.com/article/17132/text/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4703346/

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